Artificial intelligence (AI) is proving to be the most significant technological advancement across all industries in recent decades. While we're still years away from the robotics side of AI, the machine learning (ML) sector has exploded by helping companies with everything from improving customer retention rates to driving enhanced insights from big data and even mitigating supply chain risks. With the global machine learning market anticipated to grow from $1.4B in 2017 to $8.8B by 2022 according to a recent report by Research and Markets, here's a look at where those investments are headed and what it means for increasingly in-demand machine learning talent. Last year, Amazon introduced us all to Alexa in the workplace, but this voice-activated, AI-powered device is only the beginning. Natural language processing (NLP), made possible through machine learning, helps computers, systems, and solutions better understand the context and meaning of sentences.

Tech giants, universities, consultancy firms and a retailer are among Australia's top hirers for artificial intelligence related roles, according to analysis by job-site Indeed. The government's scientific research organisation CSIRO emerged as the top seeker of candidates for AI roles, measured by number of jobs requiring related skills posted to the website this year. In second place was IBM, followed by Zendesk, Culture Amp, Macquarie University, Google, Atlassian and BCG Digital Ventures. The rapid rise of the specialised field is leading to a'skills mismatch' said Indeed's APAC economist Callam Pickering. "That is, the skills in demand from employers are not necessarily the skills possessed by job seekers. This often happens because the skills in demand are rapidly changing, reflecting the needs to adapt to new technologies," he told CIO Australia.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is proving to be the most significant technological advancement across all industries in recent decades. While we're still years away from the robotics side of AI, the machine learning (ML) sector has exploded by helping companies with everything from improving customer retention rates to driving enhanced insights from big data and even mitigating supply chain risks. With the global machine learning market anticipated to grow from $1.4B in 2017 to $8.8B by 2022 according to a recent report by Research and Markets, here's a look at where those investments are headed and what it means for increasingly in-demand machine learning talent. Last year, Amazon introduced us all to Alexa in the workplace, but this voice-activated, AI-powered device is only the beginning. Natural language processing (NLP), made possible through machine learning, helps computers, systems, and solutions better understand the context and meaning of sentences.

Artificial intelligence is one of the hottest areas in software development right now, and employers just can't get enough AI skills, confirms a new report on research report on enterprise hiring trends. Careers site Indeed's Hiring Lab, known for publicizing industry jobs trends by mining its internal data, last week published new research indicating that the demand for AI skills has consistently grown over the past 18 months, increasing twofold since AI was vaulted into the enterprise development limelight. "As new advances in AI grab headlines, the need for workers with related skills is clearly on the rise," Indeed said in a blog post last week titled "Demand for AI Talent on the Rise." "Demand for workers with AI talent has more than doubled over the past three years, with the number of AI-related job postings as a share of all job postings up about 119 percent." Ironically, the same can't be said for job seekers' interest in AI-related jobs.